Tool generates fake searches for privacy

[brokencrow]

A new tool seeks to make your searches more private by hiding them in plain sight. TrackMeNot periodically sends fake, innocuous queries to search engines, making it harder for someone to glean your actual search habits by reviewing the companies' logs that contain your queries.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060830/...menot_searches

[acidtone]

I'll bet money, on the fact this this tool if you can call it that, the makers will either sell the legit searches to third party company's or the data will be traded etc etc.

It's also not foolproof. Someone knowing the list of terms TrackMeNot uses can simply strip those records out of the databases. Developers say they are working on expanding the list.

had a good laugh about that...

[nihil]

I honestly can't see it doing much good.

1. It does not really protect your privacy, it just screws up the other guy's statistics?
2. De-obfuscation should be relatively trivial?
3. How many people are ever going to use it, given the numbers that don't keep their software up to date?

There is also the danger that if you do get identified some way, you will get spammed for even more crap than you do right now?

[brokencrow]

It looks legit enough. Coming from the academic community, I doubt it's a data harvester at this point. Probably started out as a research project (not a bad one in my book either).

How would you get spammed via an add-on for Firefox? He-heh, I use web-based email anyway.

[nihil]

How would you get spammed via an add-on for Firefox?

No idea, at present I would say you couldn't. I was just raising a speculative question regarding the logic of the concept.

Sort of: "the more dust I raise the more I get noticed"?